Week 3

MONDAY

Since only half of us attended Fashion Week on Friday, it was now our turn to stay in class while the other half attended. This day was used as a catch-up session. We were told to complete any work from the 2D and 3D design workshops, we took part in the week before.
I had already printed off and stuck in photo's from the 3D workshop, as well as completed a total of 30 designs inspired by what I had created that day. However, despite feeling confident with those designs, I felt the 15 designs from the 2D workshop could be looked at again and worked on. As well as focusing on my 2D designs, our tutor spent the day collecting groups of 7 of us, at a time, to do group tutorials. However, since our class is so big, our tutor did not have time to get to everyone, including me. Knowing we would be out Wednesday though, our tutor made it clear the rest of us would be seen on Friday.
Overall, I really enjoyed my day. We have been very busy and a lot of information has been thrown at us. It was nice to have the day to catch up and digest everything we have been doing.

WEDNESDAY
With groups 2 and 3 being told to meet at Piccadilly Circus, the whole purpose of today was research.


London is probably the greatest city in the world in terms of history, culture, shops, museums, galleries and fashion, the city is overflowing with inspiration, references and information. We are very lucky to attend Ravensbourne, since we are right on top of the city and can easily get to and from the very centre of it with no problems.
Keeping all of this in mind, we individually set off on the 'Magical Mystery Tour', in which we were given a list of streets to visit. These streets included; Berwick Street, Mount Street, Conduit Street, Davies Street, Hanover Square, Dering Street, among 11 more. We were given the day to visit as many of these streets as we could, and collect samples, images and documentations.
I was looking forward to this task, and really enjoyed it while doing so. I love London, I could walk round it for hours. It was so helpful to be given a list of direct streets in London that should provide us with resources, since if there were any we did not get a chance to visit, we could always go back to them another day. As well as giving us the opportunity to actually go out on our own and find what we need - I have to say I am loving the independence.
I found the day really helpful, I managed to get documentations, images and samples from not only shops down these streets, but also the streets themselves. Since I want to look at patterns in nature for my project, I could take pictures of the plants and trees, as well as the clothing in the shops.

FRIDAY
We were introduced to a new topic on Friday, 'Trend Reports'. A trend report is to inform on; what is in the shops, as well as what is happening on the runway.
Friday had us put ourselves into groups, then decide on a topic for our trend report. We were given the option to comment on; the differences in each countries fashion week, market levels or street fashion, but my group decided to comment on how high street shops are beginning to copy high end brands, on not only clothing, but; branding, promotion and more. Having picked a topic for our trend report we had to decide on an audience, and focus on; accessories, colour, fabric, detail, shape and theme. We decided our target audience would be young adults who were interested in fashion, those like us, who love fashion but maybe cannot afford those high end brands, so decided to create this trend report as a blog post. This was typed on my friends personal blog and officially posted.
Since we were working in a group we were all assigned jobs, mine was to look at the online promotion and branding of high end and high street shops, then to compare them for their similarities.   I could not believe how many similarities there were when comparing! It seems pretty obvious that shops, such as; TopShop and Zara are trying to appeal to those of us that love expensive brands but do not have the pockets deep enough to afford them. But you can read about that on our blog post.
I found this task enjoyable, I loved the group I worked in and found we were all on the same page, making it easy to communicate and express ideas.
I also was given a sketchbook tutorial by my tutor, which I was so nervous to receive but found extremely helpful! Sitting with my tutor one on one, she gave my sketchbook a good inspection. Both my strengths and weaknesses were listed, which I wrote down so I can work on. I was told my strengths were my presentation of images when it came to my initial research, and my designs based on my 3D work. Although I have to work on the composition of my models and my work in the 2D workshop - this is something I will definitely take on board for my next set of designs.

Link to our trend report - http://stylebyirum.blogspot.co.uk

Week 2

MONDAY

We were given the option to explore either fashion design or fashion promotion. I have always had an interest in the design approach to design compared to the promotional side, which is why I decided to pick design. By picking design the Monday consisted of firstly; folding a piece of brown paper into eight, then cutting out a random shape to then leave at the side of a dummy. We then had to move around three places and attach the pieces of paper to the dummy in whatever composition we see fit depending on the word or instruction given by our tutor, for example on one occasion we were told to only focus on the back of the dummy and it had to be something 'pretty'. Here are some of the results;

As well as trying this with shapes cut out by other people, we were also given time to make as many designs as possible with the shapes with had cut out ourselves. For this part of the task we were not given any words or instructions, we were simply left to create our own visions. 

The next part of the task, was to make 3D shapes out of the paper which we then had to make creations from by attaching them to the dummy. This was to give us the experience of working with 3D shapes and materials. I have to say, it took me awhile to get used to this technique. I had felt far more comfortable working with the 2D pieces of paper. However, I did eventually come to grips with the process and managed to make a number of creations, here are a few of them:

The third and final part to the task, was for us to cut out a strip of paper, as thin as we could make it, in any shape we wanted, the only rule being, the shape could not join together. It had to have two ends. With the stripes of paper we had cut out, we then had to pin a piece to the dummy, then pin the rest down depending on where the paper moved itself to. We were not allowed to manipulate the paper, and take it on a course which was forced, it had to be where the paper would naturally turn to. This was to act as almost a pencil line, in inspiring us to look at the outline of shapes and what we can take from that.

Our homework was to then, use these photos as inspiration and design a total of 30 outfits in our sketch books. That's 10 per task. I was very surprised at how much I enjoyed the 3D session. My strength is definitely more drawing than anything else, so I was much more looking forward to the 2D work, however I enjoyed my whole day and was really inspired to complete the homework.

WEDNESDAY

Since my group had worked on the 3D designs on Monday, Wednesday was our turn at the 2D designs. Our day consisted of firstly picking one of our own images as inspiration to draw out a total of 6 t-shirt designs. It was fair to say our first attempt was nothing short of a complete and utter fail, but we were then informed of the do's and don'ts, which led us all on to great success and improvement as the day progressed. 

We had to look at small but effective details on our own clothing and the clothing worn by other members of the class, in which we would then use as inspiration for sketches. I personally found this the most beneficial part of the whole day. When it comes to designing clothes based on inspiration i worry that sometimes I have always been too literal, or looking to far into it, when this process was carefully explained to me and the rest of the class it seemed so easy and straight forward, almost as if i wondered why this has ever been something I had struggled with before.

For the rest of the day we were shown a number of clothing items, from; jackets, to skirts, trousers, collars and coats, etc. which we then had to come up with 6 of our own designs again. I thought it was great that we were working so fast throughout the day, because our minds did not have time to rest. We were on the go for the whole day, our minds on a constant, it allowed us to produce one design after another. 

FRIDAY

On Friday I attended the London Fashion Week weekend. I was so excited, I have been obsessed with  fashion since I can remember but have never had the opportunity to go to Fashion Week, so to just be there and part of the atmosphere was such an incredible experience in itself. 

The whole point to the day was that we had no tickets, we did not know anyone there, but had to use our charm and social skills to get into any shows all talks we could and network. 

Worrying the day was going to be stressful and  a little pointless considering we had no tickets, I could not see us getting anywhere, but I was very wrong! My friend and I were approached by a member of staff and given tickets to a talk by make-up artist Ismaya Ffrench and photographer Miles Aldridge, which was very insightful and helpful! We also managed to be introduced to the marketing executive and director for Thomas Sabo, as well as buyers for House of Fraser, all of which had very helpful and inspiring tips for a designer starting out. I am very lucky to have had the opportunity to talk to them.

The whole day was an experience I will definitely remember! Considering we were going there with no connections or tickets, I was surprised how much we managed to achieve in such little time. All the conversations and talks were very helpful and beneficial, especially since I am new to this and can do with all the help I can get. However the most important thing I took away from this day, is how important it is to just ask. Just ask to talk to someone, or just ask for tickets to a show, or just ask for tickets for a talk and you will be surprised with the outcome. Many people in the fashion industry look scary and intimidating, but everyone knows you have to start somewhere, especially in fashion! keeping this in mind, they want to help you by giving you any advice or experience they can, they are more than willing to help. And if someone says no, oh well, just move on and ask the next.

Week 1

At 8.45, on Monday morning, we begun our journey as fashion foundation students at Ravensbourne. To make us feel more welcome, as well as to get to know those we would be spending the rest of the year with, our tutor organised an ice breaker game, which involved us asking one another some fairly personal questions, but luckily everyone was willing to give one hundred percent and we all had the opportunity to talk to people we had not spoken to yet. After that, it was  time to start working! We had all been asked to bring two photos in. These photos could mean something to us, or nothing at all, could be an image or quote, but could not be everything or anyone well known. Once everyone stuck their images to the wall, we then had to pick one, but it could not be our own. From this image we created a mind-map based on that image, surrounding it with words, places, phrases and questions. We were then asked to pick a second image. But this image had to be completely opposite to the first image we picked. And so the process started again. We were then told these two images would be the starting point of our first project. 

I was really looking forward to Wednesday , since we had an organised visit to the V&A. This visit was to provide us with possible research for our project. We all had to pay a visit to the 'What Is Luxury?' exhibition, which explores the ideas of luxury today and addresses how luxury is made and understood. Once we had since the exhibition we were given time to explore the rest of the V&A. This benefited my project greatly, since I would like to look at and focus on patterns in nature, and there were a number of displays that presented patterns, details and designs in nature, so I was able to take a lot of pictures which I could then use in my sketchbook. 

On Thursday, only a hand full of us took part in a life drawing class. Despite accidentally not booking a model for the class we made the most of the day, taking it in turns one by one to model for everyone, choosing a variety of poses and media to conduct our drawings. A life drawing session was definitely helpful for this course, considering we are fashion students we have to take into account peoples bodies, the variety of shapes and sizes, the way people move and therefore the best way clothes will fit them. 

Friday was used to create concept boards. We were given the morning to collect as many images as we needed and wanted, to then present on a concept board. We were informed concept boards are a page that tell the designers story. Fashion Designers mainly use a variety of photographs to get inspired to work on every line of new collection. Anything that sparks the designer's creativity process. These can vary according and imagination is a appropriate inspirational material. Once we had our images we were left to create our board, by placing the images on the table, NOT STICK THEM DOWN ON PAPER! This way we could experiment with out boards by moving the images around, as well as adding more, or taking away any. We then moved around, one, two, three places along to move other peoples concept boards around. I found it was very beneficial to see other peoples ideas and approaches to your project.

Overall I have extremely enjoyed my first week at Ravensbourne, Finding the work to be challenging,enjoyable and informative. I am very much looking forward to the weeks and year ahead of me.